Lunch with the dean provides insightful discussions

Fort Worth, TX

5/3/2010

By: Bonnie Morgan, Schieffer School of Journalism

Most students would be intimidated to have lunch with the dean of a college. Dr. Mary Patton, dean of the College of Education, is trying to change that for her students. In her first year as dean, Dr. Patton created the Dean’s Lunch Bunch so education students could feel free to ask her questions.

“It’s a program I started this year where twice a semester I invite students to come and have lunch with the dean and talk about the college and their experiences and ask questions,” Dr. Patton said. “It’s very informal.” Patton’s intent is to make the students’ relationship with the dean less intimidating.

Samantha Winkelman, a freshman middle school math education student from Houston, said the Lunch Bunch was beneficial. “I did not really know who she was before this,” Winkelman said. “I didn't even know what she looked like, so after this I had a very positive perception of her; she was very helpful and very nice.”

Students who attend the Lunch Bunch have the opportunity to ask Dr. Patton anything they want.

“They ask my advice on graduate education, about why teachers leave the profession and one question was about my greatest accomplishment,” Dr. Patton said. Students also ask about her favorite place to teach, how to become a professor and what scholarships are available.

Another student who participated was Taylor Dennis, a senior middle school English/language arts and reading major from Fort Worth, said, “I found out a lot of information and enjoyed getting to know the dean better.”

Dr. Patton said she created the Lunch Bunch because she wanted to make the college the best it could be and that requires not only faculty and staff input, but also student input.

“I want students to be comfortable and feel like they can ask questions they always wanted to ask, but don’t get the chance to,” Dr. Patton said. Education student Emily Heltman, a senior middle school social studies major from Norwalk, Iowa, said the lunch was a great experience and felt like she knew more about the College of Education after talking with the dean.

“I felt the lunch was a great way for students to tell Dean Patton our thoughts on the College of Education,” Heltman said.

Typically, about 75 students are invited to participate and 10 to 15 respond. Dr. Patton said it’s not a very large response, but it works because she wants to keep it under 15 students so it’s intimate and they can introduce themselves and be able to ask questions.

“We get sandwiches or pizza. It’s very informal and it’s just a conversation,” Dr. Patton said.

Until now, students haven’t really had the opportunity to voice concerns or ask questions of the dean face-to-face in a casual environment. Winkelman, Dennis and Heltman all agreed they would participate in the Lunch Bunch again. Dr. Patton plans to invite new guests, who are not the introductory students she typically invites, when she hosts the Lunch Bunch again.

“I’m inviting two groups of College of Education leaders: our senior mentors and our Four-One students because their knowledge of the college is very deep and they’ve been here a long time, and because they’re in leadership roles, they just have a lot of information they can share with me,” Dr. Patton said. “I’m looking for their expertise.” Four-One students are those who combine a bachelor’s degree with the Master of Education degree in five years.

“My goal was to give students access to the dean because I know in a lot of colleges, no one knows who the dean is and never sees the dean. I want to be visible and I want to be accessible as a dean because I think we’re here for the students and that’s the only reason we’re all here, and I think it was a success,” Dr. Patton said.